After much deliberation at the end of last year, my roommates and I decided we wanted a change of scenery regarding our living situation. This year, we decided to live in Thomas McKean on Laird Campus. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I absolutely loved living in Honors housing for freshman year, so I was a little hesitant to live in traditional housing. Honestly, I cried when I moved out of Russell and I thought that I wouldn’t be as happy living anywhere else. Even though the move wasn’t as drastic a change as I had originally thought it would be location wise, it’s a strange feeling going from living with thirty of your best friends to knowing no one on your new floor.
Since East Campus has such a strong sense of community for freshmen, I was nervous that I wouldn’t feel that way about Laird Campus. I failed to realize that it wasn’t just my three roommates and I who were moving to the opposite end of the school – everyone else was too! While it’s refreshing to be able to meet someone new every day, I still see familiar faces in the dining hall or (attempting to be) doing homework on the turf.
Although suite-style living is different than what we were used to, it’s actually been quite nice to have a little more privacy. On the other hand, there’s no more hanging out in the hallway during a study break or passing neighbors on the long trek to the bathroom, so it can get a little lonely at times.
In order to stay in touch with friends from our floor last year who are now scattered around campus, we try to go to a meal together at least once a week. It is odd not seeing them every time I leave my room, but it’s nice to catch up when we do make it a point to see each other.
At the end of last year, my whole floor was pretty excited to move on and meet new people. Yes, we’re all certainly enjoying our air-conditioned rooms, but the floor dynamic is just not the same as freshman year. I think we’re all beginning to realize that it’s true what they say about people needing to spend time apart in order to truly miss each other. I’m sure I speak for all of my freshman year floormates when I say that no matter where we live on campus, we’ll always trace our roots back to Russell B1.
